Poor and interrupted sleep will have you waking up rushing to hit the snooze button “one more time”. Refreshing and invigorating sleep, on the other hand, can have you feeling excited to take on your daily challenges and even give you the energy to achieve more!

To help anyone out there fighting the good fight to stay awake (which can sometimes feel like an all-out war), I’ve put together an infographic of the what I’ve found to be the top 10 ways to sleep better and faster. I have provided additional descriptions of each tactic below the infographic.

–Also, if you cannot get good sleep despite trying out these tips and recommended 7 to 9 hours of sleep, check out my post: The Top Five Sleep Disorders Adults Often Face to see if you might be suffering from one of these common sleep disorders.

1. Turn Off That Phone!

Many electronic devices such as phones, laptops, some tv screens, and tablets produce a certain type of light that makes falling asleep more difficult and shortens your REM sleep cycle. Many people call it “blue light“- light of a specific wavelength that affects your sleep.

To avoid, refrain from using laptops, phones, or any blue light emitting devices at least 30 minutes before going to sleep. If you still have to use your laptop, try downloading F.lux. It’s a completely free software that reduces/eliminates the blue light emitted by your screen so that it doesn’t affect your sleep quality.

Depending on your mobile device, you can also download a blue light filter to prevent the harmful light from affecting your sleep. Android users can download this blue light filter. Apple users can enable their built in blue light filter by going to Settings–>Display & Brightness–>Night Shift and turning on the feature.

2. Set A Sleep Alarm

Going to bed at the same time every night helps stabilize your circadian rhythms. The better your Circadian rhythms, the easier it’ll be to fall asleep and the more REM sleep you will be able to get. More REM sleep, in turn, directly translates to feeling more awake and focused during the day.

To start getting better sleep, simply set a recurring alarm on your phone that goes off whenever it’s time to hit the sack. It might take a bit longer than usual to fall asleep when you start doing this. That is normal, and it happens because your body hasn’t gotten used to the new sleep schedule.

Give it 3 to 5 days and you will be on your way to better wakefulness and focus in no time!

3. Relax, Refresh, Recharge

One of the main focuses of meditation is to let go of the past and present and live in the now. Meditating before bed helps you relax and release stressful thoughts that may normally keep you tossing and turning in bed.

Many different forms of meditation will do the trick. In fact, even yoga can help you sleep better by helping you relax and let go of stressful thoughts.

4. Add Lavender to Your sleep

Lavender is a slight sedative and has been used to help treat insomnia, sleep apnea, and more. It’s no surprise that its calming properties and soothing aroma are often used to help people get better and faster sleep. Not to mention, it smells amazing!

To take advantage of lavenders sleep enhancing abilities, you have two main options. The simplest one is to place a bit of a lavender essential oil in a handkerchief and place the handkerchief under your pillow before going to bed. The aroma will diffuse through the room over time, allowing you to breathe in the lavender.

The second way is to add some lavender to a diffuser and turn it on before going to sleep. You can also mix lavender with one of these other 7 essential oils for truly refreshing and satisfying sleep.

5. Time Out!

Spending 5 minutes setting alarms and writing down everything you have to do the next day will save you a world of pre-sleep stress and help you fall asleep much faster.

Your mind tends to remind you of everything you have going on the next day. While this can be handy when you are suddenly reminded about your sisters birthday coming up in two days, usually it’s just another obstacle to sleeping well. Taking 5 minutes before bed to plan out your day and write everything down will take a massive load off your shoulders and stop your brain from keeping you from catching your well deserved ZZZ’s.

6. Get a Cooler Room

Some sleep studies have shown that having the right room temperature is more important than having the lights off while sleeping. Interestingly, the perfect sleeping temperature is actually a lot cooler than most people would except: between 60F and 67F.

If you want to get better sleep without bumping up your electricity bill, you might consider using a fan and setting the thermostat at around 69F and see how it works for you. This is what I do personally and it works beautifully.

7. Give CPAP a Shot

If you feel sleepy throughout the day, snore, and wake up with a headache or dry mouth, you might have sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea is a disorder that greatly affects sleep quality and can lead to cardiovascular disease, strokes, and even weight gain. It happens due to a blockage in the airways that causes you to wake up multiple times throughout the night without realizing it.

If you do have sleep apnea, CPAP is one of the most popular treatments to try out. Check out this complete guide on how CPAP works to learn more about the treatment and sleep apnea.

8. Play Soothing Music

The benefits of listening to music are just like those of exercising, numerous. To add to that long list, scientists have found yet another benefit of listening to music: better sleep.

Researchers in Taiwan found that participants that listened to soothing music throughout their sleep fell asleep faster, felt more energized during the day, and experienced overall better sleep quality.

I’ve played a variety of different music to help me fall asleep. Among my favorite mainstream artists for sleep are Radiohead, Muse, and The Cure. I also recommend checking out some of the most popular sleep music available. Interestingly, this music also happens to be amazing for studying and focusing.

9. Put some socks on

Having a colder room produces better sleep, but having colder feet does not.

A study in Amsterdam found that wearing warm socks speeds up sleep onset (how fast you fall asleep). Your feet are definitely one of the parts of your body that you want to keep warm while sleeping. However, the study also found that this effect decreases as people age.

Nonetheless, if you follow my previous tip and start sleeping in a 60F 67F room, you’ll probably want to sleep with socks on anyway because it’s so cold.

10. Start a journal

The benefits of keeping a journal have been well documented. It can help you remember things you’ve done throughout your life, beautiful things you’ve accomplished, and even get better sleep.

Writing down all the stressful thoughts that you have accumulated throughout the day is a great exercise for getting better sleep. It helps you clear you mind before going to bed, and even find solutions to issues on the spot.

When it’s just not enough

If, despite trying the previous techniques, you still can’t seem to fall asleep quickly and stay asleep, it might be a good idea to try out a different approach.

The Sleep Sync Program is a new approach to insomnia and sleeping troubles that relies on absolutely no medications, exercise, or drugs whatsoever.

When you sleep, your brain produces certain waves: alpha, beta, delta, theta, etc. The program uses vibrations to correct these waves and cause you to fall asleep faster and stay asleep for longer.

The program is totally non-invasive and has helped many people improve their sleep issues. Read more about the Sleep Sync Program here.

I hope these tips help you get sound sleep so that you can go through your week feeling refreshed and motivated.

If despite trying various tactics and getting the recommended 7 to 9 hours of sleep, you’re still feeling sleepy throughout the day or having trouble falling asleep, you might be suffering from a sleep disorder. You can check out my post on The 5 Most Common Sleep Disorders Adults Face to learn more about the most common sleep conditions out there.

Share this article with your friends and anyone you think might benefit from it. Feel free to leave a comment if you would like to add anything to the discussion or have any questions.

One Response

Great tips here. A cooler room, and, some lavender in my final bath water have worked just great for me. I also do a little reading sometimes and this gives me that wind down I need to go to sleep. I do not use my telephones at a certain time of the night in an effort to prepare for bed. I must, however, admit that I am one of those many people with a television in my bedroom and I find it difficult to unwind with the tv off. I have to carefully select what I watch at nights.

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